How To Fatten Up A Cat?: Nutrition Tips For Cats

Does the fur on your cat make for the most significant portion of weight they carry?

Why cannot I fatten up a cat?

If pesky thoughts as these ever find a place in your mind, it is sure that your cat's weight is a significant concern for you.

Whether it is due to your cat's age or breed, an underweight cat is a cause of concern for all feline parents. The balanced weight is as important for cats as for human beings. Undernourishment forms the central point behind a skinny cat from being a stray breed to the Persian beauty.

However, your cat can still gain the extra pounds with the right cat's appetite to tilt the scale in favor of a fit and healthy side.

Why can't Your Cat Gain Weight Even After Getting Proper Kitten Food?

Unless you want your cat to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion, you must know why you need to fatten up a cat. Weight gain makes all the difference between a healthy cat and an overweight feline.

In fact, not knowing about the essential nutrients your cat needs can be detrimental to its overall health. To see the reason behind your pet's weight, you must find out the underlying medical conditions with your feline friend.

Thyroid Gland Issues

The speedier your car goes, the faster is the fuel exhaustion. It's the same with most cats.

As soon as the cats start getting older, their thyroid gland starts acting up. Your feline friend needs Thyroxine-A secretions from its glands. Senior cats start showing ailments in their thyroid gland, limiting the secretion.

With lesser secretion, your cat's metabolism will shoot up and exhaust more fuel, i.e., fat from its body. Higher metabolism makes the cat gain weight difficult.

Intestinal Parasites

Worms are going to take up your cat's share of nutrition.

The intestinal parasites latch on to your cat's tract and gulp down all the nutrients from their healthy appetite. If your cat is too skinny, taking the stool to a vet can confirm your worm worries and treat them accordingly. Tapeworms are the most common worms that veterinary medicine can easily flush out of your cat's system.

Extra Calories Expenditure

It feels blissful to see your ball of fur hopping from one end of the sofa to another. Your cats are brimming with energy and will use up more calories with their hyperactivity. It's prevalent for the felines to be super active.

However, you need to ensure that your cats get nutritional supplements to match the spending. Your cat's food bowl requires a sumptuary higher calorie food with dietary supplements.

Miscellaneous Reasons

If you have more than one cat, it's very much possible that the dominant feline is taking up the food share of your skinny cat. Moreover, your cat might be going through a stressful season or getting older. Both of these reasons form plausible reasons for your cat's weight loss.

Cats tend to react strongly to being unwell or bored with food by losing their appetite. If your cat foods catalogue carries just canned food, the absence of diversity can be a reason for the weight loss.

What Can You Do To Help Your Cat Gain Weight?

No one can bear to watch their feline friend dreary-eyed and with a lean body.

Not only can the weight loss make your cat weak, but it also takes away the happiness from your house. That's why it's almost mandatory for you to dive deeper into the cause behind your underweight cat.

Once you've figured out the reasons with your veterinary's help, you can start working on your cat's appetite for weight gain.

Here's how you can chub up your feline buddy!

Choose Canned Kitten Food

If you ever wondered whether kitten foods are good for your skinny kitten, the answer is a resounding Yes!

Not only do the cats need balanced food, but you also can remain worry-free about taking care of nutritional supplements. The foods such as high-protein cat kibble will add to the micronutrition requirements.

Choosing the right canned food is essential when your cat needs to gain weight. You can't go through the hassle of getting the food and pouring it into different bowls. You need to ensure that the food comes in an appropriate microwavable container.

Prefer Wet Food Over Dry Cat Food

When you've to feed a creature as picky as your cats, you need to cater to their taste buds as well.

Cats prefer wet food over dry food. It makes a choice really easy for you since dry cat food contains less protein and more carbohydrates.

If you aim to fatten up your skinny cat facing poor appetite, you must prefer wet food over dry kibble.

Bring In Homemade Delicacies

As much as you want to change your food routines, your cat might also benefit from the homemade options.

You can even serve warm food to your purr-buddy, like homemade unsalted chicken broth. Moreover, cats love eggs, and you can benefit from a simple hack including the same.

You can cook up some scrambled eggs once in a while to bring a change in the taste buds of your cat. Thoroughly cooked tuna or liver will definitely act as your cat's appetite stimulants.

Granted, you want to fatten up your cat but go slow. You don't want to turn it obese or let your efforts go in vain.

Note: You should keep raw eggs at bay from your kitten food as it'll hamper the Vitamin B absorption. Moreover, a homemade diet doesn't mean you can go overboard with the pampering.

Adopt Frequent Meals

Your cat might not be able to finish its food in one go. That's why including small meals spread out over frequent intervals can help improve your cat's diet.

Cats are the creatures of discipline. Whether the stray cats or the rare breed, you need to gradually move your way up the diet ladder and ensure your cats eat small meals.

From roasted chicken to skinless meat, your cat will take time to absorb and adapt to animal protein meals.

Include Supplements for Your Cat to Gain Weight

While it's admirable that you want your cat to gain weight naturally, supplements can boost your efforts. You can include fish oil in adult cat food to enhance the taste and overall health benefits.

Healthy cat food rich in fish oil will improve the taste and ensure a healthy weight and silkier cat feel.

Moreover, you can prefer to go with appetite-stimulating medicine if your cat needs to gain weight. Once you have tried out adding on the meals and supplements but to no avail, appetite stimulants can do wonders.

If your cat has lost its appetite, these stimulants will ensure an increase in the hunger games. It's especially beneficial for older cats who can't eat enough and face heavy weight loss.

Top Up With More Variety

Your cat loves the food it can relish with your care. Your cat can throw tantrums and lose weight if you do not include enough diversity in its diet. You can feed skinless white meat or a homemade diet of dry kibble with fish oil garnishing.

Including boiled eggs without salts and oil can be an excellent tastemaker for your cat and prevent losing weight.

Note: You can set the ball rolling by adding your food like anchovies as treats once your cat finishes the set meals. Your cat will always appreciate a tasty reward!

Turn Kitten Food More Enjoyable

Cats are critical, even of the surroundings that they eat their food in. Aging cats might create a fuss over a change in the bowl or the environment they have their food in. It's absolutely necessary for you to provide a comfortable spot for your cat to enjoy the food.

If you want the cat to gain weight, you must make the food absolutely delicious and the eating ambiance purr-fect!

Soften the Kitten Food

Your furball will lose weight, especially if it belongs to the category of senior cats.

As the age progresses, the risks of getting diseases enhance too. Your cat's weight loss might be a symptom of different ailments such as kidney disease, dental disease, and so on.

Dry food makes it difficult to be chowed down with the problems. Your cat will require special attention and softer food in situations like these.

Other than mouth ulcers, weight loss, and diarrhea, kidney disease can be brutal on your precious cat. Softer and wetter food help your cat digest the nutrition easily.

Some FAQs To Ease Your Mind!

One day your feral friend gobbles down every tiny bit of the food, and the next day it just stops eating altogether.

What follows is a drastic weight loss that can alarm even the most carefree of cat parents. It's evident for your mind to start bubbling with curiosity considering you want to fatten up a cat.

Don't fret anymore. These answers will guide you to fatten up a cat.

What can I give my cat to gain weight?

The trick is in adding more calories to your cat's diet. From human food such as yogurt to canned cat food, you can feed your furball anything high on protein and a bit low on carbohydrates.

Note: Ensure that your cat doesn't have any intolerance or insensitivities towards a particular food. A simple blood test will reveal the allergies it might have.

How can I make my cat fat fast?

The answer is small, frequent, yet delicious meals. The more your cat will savor the calories, the easier it'd be to gain weight. You must keep a note of the body condition score chart so that the cat remains in the healthy weight range.

Note: The ideal weight range on the body condition chart is between 4 to 5.

Can I feed my skinny cat kitten food?

Absolutely!

Kitten food is one of the most nutrient-rich and calorie-dense, which is the perfect balance to fatten up a cat. You need to ensure that you're slowly upping the diet for your cat.

How can I get my skinny cat to gain weight?

Nutrition and preferences are the benchmarks for your felines. If you want to fatten up a cat, you need to perfect the balance between the two.

Your cats need to love the diet you're serving especially considering their health issues if any.

Final Verdict

Merely holding the furballs warms up the heart. You can't bear the thought of seeing them sick, let alone depressed or stressed. No matter how many tantrums they throw, your cats cherish your company and your care.

However, you may notice a shift in their appetite every once in a while. Over time the differences m become more significant with your cat's weight loss. Whether it's due to the stress caused by a barking dog or a severe disease, you need to inspect thoroughly.

With proper dietary habits, regular checkups, and routine pampering, your cat stands a chance to remove its skinny status. The more curious and careful you can be about their protein and fat balance, the higher will be the likelihood of getting fatter.

Even though you want to shower them with all the love, attention, and care, you should always be wary of the cat's ideal weight category.

With all of this being said, weight gain is a slow process. What are you waiting for now?